"If you want Hamas to change its policy, you must also ask the Israelis to change theirs."

Phone call

Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday that contacts with Hamas were a "mistake".

In a phone call to President Putin, Mr Olmert said such contacts "would only encourage the organisation not to make the changes that the international community is demanding of it," Mr Olmert's office said.

It also said Mr Putin had assured Israel that Russia would not take any step against its interests or security.

Meanwhile legislators from the Fatah movement - which controlled the Palestinian Authority until its election defeat - urged their group to reject an invitation by Hamas to join a new administration.

They cited Hamas' rejection of the Middle East peace process as a reason for staying away.